Interesting, so do the requirements for membership in CGA have some "flexibility" in them? Curious because I know this has been a major talking point for many years.
Not CGA just a little wiggle room in LoE, trying to get friends and family in to join the bigger family. It still is a requirement and we prefer you meet all the requirements. The exceptions are few and far between.
edit: There is a specific procedure for these departures which is followed always.
I'm typing this reply on my lunch break at work, so I can't take long, but I wanted to make sure everyone was clear on this point.
Tribe of Judah requires a profession of Christian faith to join. Yes, we understand that applicants can lie and we also understand that only God can know the heart of a person with absolute certainty. That being said, we retain the requirement because the foundation of Tribe of Judah is bringing together people of a common faith. Most folks are probably tired of hearing (or reading) me say (or type) it, but, "We are Christians that happen to be gamers, not gamers that happen to be Christians."
So if applicants are truthful, then the
ToJ membership is restricted to Christians only; however, multiple Tribe of Judah guilds, including Redeemed and Legacy of Elijah, have made special provisions for family and close friends who are not members of ToJ to join the guild.
In short, there are 2 rosters: The ToJ roster and then the individual guild roster.
The exceptions in LoE ursen mentioned and those made under what was dubbed the "sponsorship program" in Redeemed (because I could never think of a better name) were and remain a concession for the purpose of keeping family members and friends playing in the same guild and, we hope, representing Christ in our words and actions so as to help lead people to recognize Christ as the son of God and accept Him as savior. (We understand the Holy Spirit--not our own efforts--convict people of sin and lead to repentance, but personal will still plays a role in what remains one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. But I suppose this isn't the time for a weighty theological discussion.
)
So why keep the same requirements for ToJ membership but allow exceptions for ToJ guild in-game membership?
Because guilds, unlike first-person shooters or strategy games, often require membership in the same guild to interact more closely with friends, family, and acquaintances. For our Team Fortress 2 chapter, anyone can join our TF2 server and the gameplay is no different for ToJ members or non-members.
Membership makes no difference in terms of gameplay in TF2.
But
in MMOs, guild membership makes a tremendous difference when it comes to gameplay. If your brother, sister, or friend can't join the same guild as you, there are opportunities and activities you each will miss out on.
So why then are the guidelines for exceptions, such as those in LoE and Redeemed, so strict? Because even if a guild member who isn't a ToJ member can never hold a staff position, they can still wield considerable influence. There is risk involved with exceptions; however, Stc95 and I agreed that the opportunity for family and friends to play together--provided all parties followed the rules--and, even more importantly, the opportunity to display Christ's character through how we play the games we play was worth the risk.
Coming back to the point of CGA: Because ToJ maintains a "dual roster" system (one main roster, individual in-game rosters for individual guilds), ToJ remains eligible for membership in the CGA.
The requirements for CGA membership have not changed.
Regardless of chapter or what game we play,
it's my passionate desire to see Tribe of Judah, as a gaming community, look outward to people we can help and lead to Christ and never be a "closed circle" where we shut the world out and have no contact with those who believe differently. Yes, I want us to have fun together and I want to provide opportunities for families to play together, but "good, moral" behavior is not what defines us as Christians--though our lives should reflect, though imperfectly, God's holy nature. What defines us as Christians is that Christ redeemed us.
I ended up typing much more than planned, but I hope this clarifies the questions raised above. They're good questions and I apologize for not answering them more clearly in the past or posting answers in a more visible location. (I believe the LoE membership guidelines are available in a much more obvious place. I would look it up and post a link if I wasn't out of time to finish this post.) As time allows (and likely after my next child is born in November), I may take some time to copy and paste excerpts from this post, polish them, and assemble a better explanation of the logic behind ToJ's membership requirements and CGA's member-group requirements.
Lady Snowfall: My apologies for not replying to this thread and to you sooner. I somehow had missed that there were new posts in this thread. I'll try to remember to send you a PM from my main account this evening so we can arrange a time to meet on TeamSpeak.
EDIT: And my apologies for posting a wall of text in your thread, Lady Snowfall and Odid! I had planned to keep the reply short, but ended up rambling on after all.
. We have our own Website, and Facebook Page and Group. We would like to be a part of CGA to network, connect, and use TS3/some forum to be with other Christian gamers. That is the simple thought of where I was seeing it lol.
